March 21, 2014Annual Review of Immunology2,130 citationsOpen Access
Chemokines and Chemokine Receptors: Positioning Cells for Host Defense and Immunity
Key Points
- To review recent advances in understanding how chemokines and their receptors orchestrate immune cell migration and regulate adaptive immune responses during homeostasis and inflammation.
- Synthesized findings on the network of approximately 50 endogenous chemokine ligands and 20 G protein-coupled seven-transmembrane signaling receptors across lymphoid and peripheral tissues.
- Chemokine networks control the directional migration and tissue-specific positioning of immune cells during both normal homeostasis and acute inflammation.
- Chemokine receptor signaling directs critical adaptive immune processes, including naive T cell priming, effector and memory cell differentiation, and regulatory T cell function.
Abstract
Chemokines are chemotactic cytokines that control the migratory patterns and positioning of all immune cells. Although chemokines were initially appreciated as important mediators of acute inflammation, we now know that this complex system of approximately 50 endogenous chemokine ligands and 20 G protein-coupled seven-transmembrane signaling receptors is also critical for the generation of primary and secondary adaptive cellular and humoral immune responses. Recent studies demonstrate important roles for the chemokine system in the priming of naive T cells, in cell fate decisions such as effector and memory cell differentiation, and in regulatory T cell function. In this review, we focus on recent advances in understanding how the chemokine system orchestrates immune cell migration and positioning at the organismic level in homeostasis, in acute inflammation, and during the generation and regulation of adoptive primary and secondary immune responses in the lymphoid system and peripheral nonlymphoid tissue.